Myth: Global competition pits U.S. workers, employers and consumers against each other.

Fact: In the United States, Ashoka Fellows are demonstrating how it is in the interest of businesses to end to generations of poverty at home and abroad. They are delivering solutions to workforce development, fair trade, and anti-poverty issues that are good for business, uplifting for employees, and responsive to consumer demand. They have created programs that help the working poor overcome barriers that keep them poor even though they are employed. They assure that a cup of coffee sold in an upscale boutique helps those in the developing world who grew the coffee. They unleash talent among young people, immigrants, former prisoners, and other nontraditional populations and deploy them in careers where they are most needed and have opportunities to grow.

Ashoka Fellows embody a new paradigm, a competitive business sector and an effective social system need each other to thrive.

US Fellows in the Field of Economic Development:

• Rick Aubry - Rubicon Programs
• Steve Bigari - America's Family, Inc.
  
• Elliott Brown - Springboard Forward
  
• Brian Cahan - Urban, Logic, Inc.
• Adele Douglass - Humane Farm Animal Care
• Willy Foote - Root Capital
  
• Furhana Huq - C.E.O. Women
  
• Ron Layton - Light YearsIP
• Matthew Lee - Inner City Press and Fair Finance Watch
  
• Amy Lemley - First Place Fund for Youth
  
• Jane Leu - Upwardly Global
  
• DJ Powers - Center for Economic Justice
  
• Paul Rice -Transfair USA
  
• Steve Rothschild - Twin Cities RISE!
• John Sage - Pure Vida Coffee
  
• Atsumasa Tochisako - Microfinance International Corporation
  
• Dallas Wilson - Project Restore